Saturday, March 01, 2008

Piping for the raw silk

"I'm so excited!" I went shopping today for piping material and got so much more.
new patterns
First of all, when I walked into the Fabricland, I saw that they had Vogue patterns on sale. I am still looking for the perfect jacket pattern (actually something more than that but that's another story) and I sat down and looked through the patterns. I ended up with three different patterns - one for a short, swingy jacket with back pleats, one for a reversible jacket that looked interesting and one for a dress that I had seen at A Dress A Day.
purchases
Then I went looking for that pink-and-white quilting cotton for the piping. I had it in my head that it would be just the two colours and a sufficiently large print that you couldn't tell what was going on once it was piping. But of course, once you start looking for something you imagine, it doesn't always appear. I was torn between a pink with a tiny yellow flower on it and some pink and white mottled stuff when the sales clerk told me there was some other stuff on sale. I went to look at it and there it was.
piping ideas
The best thing was that it didn't have a white background. I saw right away that the cream worked better with the silk which has quite a lot of yellow in it when you look at it closely.

In addition, I decided it was time I had a rotary cutting tool and a self-healing cutting mat and I got those too. I have two sized of piping cord because I'm going to use the smaller on the inside with the lining, as suggested by Threads magazine, which I will blog about as I do it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Julia, those patterns are just gorgeous! And the piping!! A good shopping day!

Chicago Sarah said...

Lovely- great haul! I love using my rotary cutter although I'm pretty wimpy when it comes to apparel (for crafts it's great)...for you, I imagine the ability to do that much more fine a cut will make a difference. Can't wait to see how you put that piping article from Threads into action!

Vicki said...

The piping fabric is lovely - nice match!

JuliaR said...

Thanks all! I still haven't tried the rotary cutter but I am really looking forward to it. In days of yore, I made yards and yards of bias tape for drapery projects and pillows and I could have used one then. This time, I only bought the small mat but I don't need that much piping.

Ann Made Studio said...

Your fabrics look wonderful together. Great matches :)
I'm sure you'll love your rotary cutter/mat :)

e rega said...

Ahh, that silk is beautiful, and the piping looks nice next to it.

And I'm of the opinion that rotary cutters are the best thing ever.

JuliaR said...

Thanks Ann. I am still happy with it, although, as they say, the proof will be in the pudding (piping, in this case). I have so much now that I think I may fiddle with it and only choose the paler parts. Maybe.

e rega, you are right - I now adore my rotary cutter! Since I have to use it on a mat and only have a small mat, I won't use it for the bulk of what I do. But I will be experimenting with fiddly bits. It cut that cotton like it was butter.